A couple of points

1. belt flexure at the idler joint may cause premature failure

2. worn belt will now have dirty and mishapen surface contacting the pulley system which may cause excessive strain in the splice cords which can lead to splice premature failure

I am curious on how much rubber is left above the cords in the highly worn crossection and for how many cords? ■

clarification on point 1.



The flexure issue relates to rubber fatiue along the cord axis where the belt undergoes its largest strain. The compound bending of the belt is from the flat tail pulley into the trough shape with a strain pattern flexure from idler trough to mid span and back to idler trough over each idler.

Reversing the belt will exaggerate the strain pattern in the same center roll to wing roll joint loaction. Instead of a 35 degree trough and its memory, the flexure is for a 70 degree flex.

Repeated strain cycles destroys rubber and larger strain magnitude destroys it at a faster rate. ■

Matt,

The biggest hassle is usually tracking so you need to check the wear profile. It has been done successfully at O'Brien's Drift and elsewhere.

Col Benjamin ■

Two items I would check before flipping a belt over would be camber and cupping. Camber is a banana like curve to the belt along the entire length. Belt camber is often confused with a crooked splice. Cooked splice has quick side to side movement, only in the area of the splice, while belt camber is a slow side to side movement along the belt path.If this is excessive the belt will track poorly. Cupping is a curvature of the belt perpendicular to the line of travel. Again if there is cupping the belt will loose contact with the rollers and will be difficult to track if not impossible. ■